[Talk-GB] Primary or Trunk?

[Tom Hughes]

On 03/11/13 19:07, Jonathan wrote:

> In the UK we are defining Trunk or Primary based on some arbitrary
> definition not on anything that is of use to any user or renderer.

Not at all, we're defining it based on something that is very much of 
use to both those things.

> What we should be mapping is reality, so that people can use that data
> to build on.  Whether a road is signed in Green, Pink or Purple tells a
> user nothing, it may have a legal definition but that is all.  The tag
> we give it should tell the user something about the road's capabilities,
> importance, size and potential timings/traffic flow.  A Trunk road that
> is a dual carriageway with a maxspeed of 70 mph is very different to a
> Trunk road that winds around fields and has a maxspeed of 50 mph or less!

The Primary Route Network is not arbitrary. It is made of of the most 
important routes connecting a defined set of major towns. Even where 
that is not a particularly major road it is still the main road between 
those towns and as such deserves to be highlighted.

The roads that we mark as trunk are basically exactly the same ones that 
an OS map colours green rather than red or Google Maps highlights in 
green rather than orange.

Tom

-- 
Tom Hughes (tom at compton.nu)
http://compton.nu/